


Purrgatory

by curl



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Cat allergy, Friendship, Gen, Lighthearted, M/M, bonding with animals, juke IF you squint, julie can see willie in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26845543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curl/pseuds/curl
Summary: The phantoms bring home a cat and they all learn something new about how allergies work.
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie & Everyone
Comments: 9
Kudos: 165





	Purrgatory

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a convo in the jatp discord the other day (with special thanks to sofi hehe)

The first thing Julie heard when she came home from school was a loud sneeze echoing through the house.  
“I'm home!” she announced herself and closed the door.  
Her father stuck his head into the room. “Hi, honey.” he said with a stuffy nose.  
“You don't sound good.” Julie said. When she got a proper look at him she noticed his reddened eyes and the crinkled tissue in his hands. “You don't looks so good either. Are you sick?”  
Ray sniffled before he responded. “Feels like an allergic reaction. It's like there's been an invisible cat running around the house all day.”  
Julie blinked at him. “..What?”  
She slowly looked around the room, digging her fingers into the strap of the backpack she was still wearing. There was already a theory forming in her head. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't immediately think of it, but she already knew that ghosts existed, and animals died too, so it really was not that big of a leap.  
“I'm joking.” Ray replied, a little confused by Julie's strange reaction.  
Julie then realized that she was acting weird, too. “Yeah, I know.” She said and tried to gloss over it by laughing at her father's joke. A little too much and a little too loudly, so she stopped abruptly.  
Fortunately, Ray didn't seem all too bothered by Julie's behavior. Or he was used to it by now.  
“I don't know what it is.” He said. “I guess there's just something in the air.”  
“Yeah, probably. I mean, it's not an invisible cat, that's for sure.” She said with a wave of her hand. “That would be ridiculous.” She let out another awkward laugh before promptly shutting her mouth.  
Crinkling his forehead, Ray looked up at a high shelf. “I guess we fell a little behind with the dusting around here.”  
“Why don't you get started on that and I'll go into the garage to do some... homework!” Julie said and didn't wait for a response before reaching for the door again.  
Ray raised his eyebrows at her, probably thinking that she just wanted to get out of doing chores. But better he believed that than figuring out the truth – that Julie wanted to go into the garage to talk to her ghost friends.

Just when she closed the front door behind her, Willie poofed into the driveway on his skateboard.  
“Willie, perfect timing.” she said, keeping her voice down in case her father could still hear her.  
Willie stepped on one end of his skateboard and caught it with his hand. “Yeah? What's up?”  
“I have a ghost related question.”  
“Shoot.” Willie replied with an inviting hand gesture.  
Without dancing around it, Julie asked, “Can animals be ghosts?”  
Willie shrugged. “Sure, I've seen a few. Why?”  
“Can people – lifers – be allergic to ghost animals?”  
Willie thought for a moment, tilting his head slightly. “I have no idea.”  
Julie clicked her tongue. “I thought you were our ghost expert.”  
“I'm flattered, but I don't know everything.” Willie said with an apologetic look on his face.  
“Well, I guess we'll just ask the boys if they've seen a ghost cat around. Then we'll know.” Julie said and walked towards the garage, closely followed by Willie.

When she opened the door to the garage, she didn't even have to say anything. There on the couch, Luke was lying on his back, with a dark brown tabby cat kneading his chest while purring loudly. In front of the couch, Reggie was sitting on the floor, reaching up to give the cat back scratches.  
Alex was standing off to the side. He looked rather serious but his face lit up when he noticed Willie.  
“Why am I even surprised.” Julie said matter-of-factly. The presence of this cat seemed to confirm her theory, at least.  
“Look what we found!” Luke said with the excitement of a child and turned his head towards Julie, revealing his red, puffy eyes.  
“You look terrible.” Julie replied with a little bit of compassion but mostly annoyance.  
“Gee, thanks.” Luke said, but was completely unbothered. “I can't believe I'm still allergic to cats. But i's not like it's gonna kill me, right?” He groaned slightly when the cat shifted on top of him. “And her feet are piercing my stomach. It's fine. Totally worth it.” With both hands he scratched the cat's head and looked at her intently. “I forgive you everything.”  
“Where did you even find it?” Julie asked.  
“We were hanging out at the beach and she just came up to us.” Reggie explained.  
“And it started sniffing me.” Alex added, still standing a few feet away from them and eyeing the cat suspiciously. “Totally invading my personal space.”  
“Alex, have some respect. It's _she_.” Luke reminded him with a teasing smirk, and Alex rolled his eyes at him.  
Luke turned to Julie again. “Her name's Reggie.”  
Reggie's shoulders dropped, clearly upset at Luke's name choice. “It's not!” He looked at Julie and repeated. “It's not.”  
Luke ignored that and added, “It's short for Regina.”  
Reggie looked quite grumpy, and in an attempt to appease him, Luke said, “You can call her R2, like R2D2.”  
Apparently this worked, as Reggie seemed to consider it.  
“And you should be honored that she's named after you.” Luke said. He sat up to hold the cat next to Reggie's face. “Don't they kind of look alike?”  
“I see it.” Willie said, getting a little bit of joy out of teasing Reggie.  
With a hint of exasperation in his voice, Alex said, “Don't encourage him!”  
“You really should be nicer to Reggie. She likes you the most out of all of us.” Luke said. He set the cat down on the floor and to Julie and Willie he said, “Watch this.”  
Immediately, the cat made a beeline for Alex, who froze in place as she started rubbing against his legs.  
“Why does she keep doing that?” Alex asked.  
Willie smirked at him and squatted down to pet her. “I wonder what kind of unfinished business a cat has.”  
“Maybe she was trying to catch a laser pointer.” Reggie suggested.  
“That'd be hard to finish.” Willie said while letting the cat nuzzle his hand.  
She was still leaning against Alex's leg and Alex was still watching her.  
Willie looked up at him. “Why don't you like her?”  
“It's nothing personal.” Alex said. “I've just never been good with cats.”  
“Come on, she's nice.” Willie said and tried to get Alex to pet her with a nod of his head.  
Alex thought for a moment, then sighed in defeat. Hesitant, he reached down and brushed his fingertips over the cat's back. He almost retracted his hand again when the cat turned around to nudge her head against his legs again, but after a few moments he relaxed and smiled at Willie.

“Okay, she's really cute,” Julie said, “but she can't stay.”  
“But she's our mascot!” Luke replied. He was sniffling because of his allergy, but it made him look like he was about to cry.  
“Don't make this hard for me. I'm sorry but my dad's allergic too. He can't live like this.”  
“Well, it's not like we can tell her to leave.” At first, Luke looked upset, but then a smug smile formed on his face. “She's kind of a free spirit.” He stuck out his fist without looking, and Reggie bumped it with his.  
“And there she goes.” Alex said.  
Julie turned to him to find the cat gone. “Where did she go?”  
The answer to her question was a loud sneeze coming from the house.

When Julie reached the house again, the ghosts were already inside, including the cat, of course.  
Ray was sitting on the couch, blowing his nose, with a newspaper he'd been trying to read on his lap. Next to him was the cat, circling a spot on the couch cushion before getting comfortable.  
“Dad!” Julie yelled before she could stop herself.  
Surprised, Ray turned to her. “Yes?”  
Julie opened her mouth, scrambling to find a reason why she called out for him. “..I'm.. That was a pretty loud sneeze. Are you sure you're okay?”  
Ray gave her a warm smile, moved by her concern for him. “I'm fine, mija, I'm sure it'll pass, whatever it is.”  
Before Julie could answer, Luke took a seat on Ray's other side.  
Pointing to his face, particularly his watery eyes, Luke said, “We're matching!”  
“No fair!” Reggie complained. “ _I'm_ his best friend!”  
He picked up the cat and pressed her to his face. “Come on, R2, let me have this.”  
Reggie the cat looked mildly bewildered, but otherwise didn't seem to mind.  
Reggie pouted when this didn't even elicit the tiniest sneeze from him. He kept her in his arms, though, gently scratching her shoulder.  
“Did you need something else?” Ray asked after a few moments of Julie just silently standing there.  
“Oh, uhm, I was just wondering, could it be something else? Since it's probably not an invisible cat.” Julie asked, and let out an awkward chuckle.  
“Well, I did buy a new plant the other day.” He turned around to look at a potted plant on the window sill. “But I've never been allergic to plants.”  
While he was looking away, Julie waved her hand to make the guys leave with the cat, and she stopped abruptly when Ray turned to face her again.  
Fortunately, they got the hint and poofed away.  
“Why don't I take it into the garage for a few days and we'll see if it helps.” Julie suggested and picked up the plant without waiting for a response.  
“I guess it's worth a try.” Ray said, though he didn't seem fully convinced.

Reggie was still holding the cat when Julie entered the garage again. This time, Alex even reached out to pet her on his own, while Reggie was rocking her like a baby.  
Julie watched them for a moment. She knew the cat had to go, but the way they had taken to her was just too sweet.  
She sighed. “Guys, I'm sorry but we can't keep her here.”  
Luke's shoulders dropped. “Don't make us get rid of her pleeaaase.”  
“Can't you take her?” She looked at Willie.  
Willie shook his head. “Sorry. I never stay in one place.”  
“Come on, Julie. Even Alex is coming around.” Reggie said.  
Alex quickly retracted his hand when all eyes were on him.  
Reggie gave Julie puppy dog eyes and Luke immediately followed suit. In unison they said, “Pleeeeaaasssee.”  
Luke gave Alex a nudge.  
In a slightly annoyed tone while rolling his eyes, Alex said, “Pleeaase.”  
Julie took a deep breath. “Fine.” The boys cheered but she held up her index finger to silence them. “ _If_ you find a way to keep her out of the house.  
“We will.” Luke said and gave her a soft smile. “Thanks, Julie.”

Julie had the feeling that she was going to regret this, but it was also the only way she could keep a cat around as long as she was living with her father. She took a step forward and tried to pet her, but her hand phased right through her.  
Julie sighed. “Great.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading hmu on tumblr @tj-smitten xoxo


End file.
